Shockingly bad Huffington Post article: What's Wrong With This Picture

[ClippinWings]

http:
//www.huffingtonpost.com
/david-b-abrams-phd
/teen-smoking_b_3780438.html

ecig part is pretty far down... but the ground work for it's bashing is laid early and often...

Then consider the cigarette's trendy new cousin -- the electronic cigarette -- another new kid on the block with appealing bells and whistles. You can buy e-cigarette nicotine cartridges in many candy, fruit, and alcohol flavors, charge the devices like cell phones or dispose of them altogether. Some can be bought for less than ten bucks at convenience stores but with chemicals like propylene glycol, the jury is still out on what long term health risks they might pose to delicate lung tissue.....

 

[2coils]

I don't know where to start with this one!! I'll digest and comment to the blog later! I hope some of our house pros can contribute to the comments section as well. A lot to do with the candy in this one. And these less dangerous products are a gateway to other tobacco products, marayouknowwhat, and other drugs. Give me a break!

 

[Vocalek]

Comment pending approval:

This is one of the most masterful compositions of propaganda I've ever seen. Making smoke-free alternatives sound like some evil plot to addict children is a good way to drum up opposition to the products. Keep the smokers lighting up so Legacy rakes in more money from the Master Settlement Agreement.

Notice how you are sucked into thinking that kids have easy access. But if the products are "behind the cashier, beyond their grasp" the kids aren't in immediate danger.

YouTube is hardly a scientific reference to prove that there is a "gateway effect" from smokeless tobacco to smoking. Scientific studies show that the first tobacco product most kids use is a conventional cigarette. Switching from smoking to smokeless is the most popular quitting method in Sweden.

The science also shows that the odds of developing oral cancer are MUCH higher with smoking than with use of smokeless tobacco. The new products are just as likely to cause cancer as medicinal nicotine gum and lozenges (i.e., zero cancer cases)...and the dissovable tobacco orbs not only contain similar amounts of nicotine, but once removed from the packaging also are visually indistinguishable from Nicorette Mini Lozenges. Guess which product is NOT behind the counter, out of reach of kids.

I suspect the authors are well aware that e-cigarettes are the only thing that finally worked for hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of older smokers who tried every other method you can think of to quit.

 

[Bill Godshall]

Here's my comment, which is awaiting moderation.


This deceitful propaganda fails to acknowledge the following facts.

Its been illegal to market tobacco products to minors in all 50 states for more than 2 decades, there's no evidence flavored cigars, smokeless tobacco products or e-cigarettes are marketed to youth, and the 1998 MSA imposes huge penalties on violations by manufacturers.

There's no evidence flavored tobacco products are more addictive, more harmful or more difficult to quit than nonflavored tobacco products.

The so-called "candy" cigarettes the authors refer to never accounted for more than .1% of market share, were removed from the market long before Congress enacted the law, and weren't marketed to youth.

Smokeless tobacco products, e-cigarettes and dissolvables are 99% (+/-1%) less hazardous than cigarettes, pose no risks to nonusers, and several million smokers have quit smoking by switching to them.

Smokeless tobacco, e-cigarettes and dissolvables are not gateway products to cigarettes, but rather are gateways for cigarette smokers to quit smoking.

E-cigarettes:
- have replaced/reduced consumption of about 750 million packs of cigarettes in US,
- are consumed almost exclusively (i.e. 99%) by smokers and former smokers who switched,
- have never been known to addict any nonsmoker (or youth) to nicotine, and
- are more effective than FDA approved drugs for smoking cessation and reducing cigarette consumption.

Abrams and Cartwright fail to ethically disclose their enormous financial conflicts of interests.

Bill Godshall
Executive Director
Smokefree Pennsylvania
1926 Monongahela Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15218
412-351-5880
smokefree@compuserve.com

 

[tommy2bad]

Commented. It read like the worst kind of propaganda.

LOL we all referred to it as propaganda. It's good propaganda tbf, uses clever justaposition and language to imply more than it actual says.

 

[Bill Godshall]

Please note that FDA invited, praised and paid Abrams to present at their 2011 conference on MRTP, where he urged the FDA to require smokeless tobacco companies to spend tens of millions of dollars in research before applying to the agency to truthfully claim that one of their smokeless tobacco products is less hazardous than cigarettes.

And of course, Abrams has been urging the FDA to ban e-cigs since 2009.

 

[Vocalek]

Am I wrong about this? I perceive that the American Legacy Foundation stands to lose a lot of funding if smoking rates drop too far and/or too fast.

 

[2coils]

Abrams and Cartwright fail to ethically disclose their enormous financial conflicts of interests.

Bill Godshall
Executive Director
Smokefree Pennsylvania
1926 Monongahela Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15218
412-351-5880
smokefree@compuserve.com

IMHO That is the disgusting part. This angers me more than when an anti-ecig article is written by a bad journalist.

 

[Petrodus]

Please note that FDA invited, praised and paid Abrams to present at their 2011 conference on MRTP, where he urged the FDA to require smokeless tobacco companies to spend tens of millions of dollars in research before applying to the agency to truthfully claim that one of their smokeless tobacco products is less hazardous than cigarettes.

And of course, Abrams has been urging the FDA to ban e-cigs since 2009.

The FDA hired someone and gave them the script to present at the conference.
That would suggest the FDA is corrupt

Yeah, I know ... Another "phony scandal"

 

[Orb Skewer]

Am I wrong about this? I perceive that the American Legacy Foundation stands to lose a lot of funding if smoking rates drop too far and/or too fast.

Not wrong Elaine-just doing what most are uneasy to even consider-and talk about
Cancer is BIG business-and some people earn a (very good) living from it, I'm sure most, if not all cancer and smoking related illness 'businesses' will be having 'squeaky *rse' syndrom right about now.

 

[Orb Skewer]

I have a little collage of my own just to highlight some of the lunacy shown by the 'do-gooders'
That article makes mention of the EU Parliament (and acceptance by the UK Government) of the 'ban' on cigarette advertising, and the imminent ban on Menthol cigarettes (as a characterising flavour-attractive to children).

Ok, the policies all seem very noble (none of us want children to take up smoking)-however, this the result in the EU of this 'noble crusade' ?

But whats wrong with these pictures ?!?!?

This is how cigarette stands in the EU used to look

A picture we're all familiar with

This is how they look now

Great, an excellent job done, those bland-un inviting and un exciting grey doors-hiding all the nasties out of sight of our young and impressionable kids-right ?

Do they remind you of anything ?- how about

Or, this ?

?!?!?
The 'Gateway' arguments are all very well, there is one thing I know from personal experience (I was a kid once), and have two (now grown up) beautifull children of my own-The 'Gateway' for most/all children is...... curiosity.

The new 'mystery box' cigarette displays are in all the supermarkets, however, all the small convenience stores dont have to go to such lengths (as yet)
I have observed-in my own locale that you will find very few children in supermarkets-but the small convenience stores have a steady stream (especialy as the school holidays are here).

The kids in the supermarkets are craning their little necks to see 'what mysteries' lay in wait inside the supermarket 'cabinet of doom' each time an assistant is asked for cigarettes, and the hordes of kids in the small convenience stores and corner shops are not even taking a second glance at the 'open display' of cigarettes that 'have always been there'.
Subliminal advertising was the bane of the AnTZ-hence the cover up, they have now created 'mystery and excitement'-
how about that

 

[Vapolith]

"aggressively marketed electronic cigarettes" Where are they marketed aggressively? Admittedly I don't read magazines, and I fast forward through TV ads, but I had to go looking for info on purchasing e-cigs when I started back in February of this year.

 

[ClippinWings]

"aggressively marketed electronic cigarettes" Where are they marketed aggressively? Admittedly I don't read magazines, and I fast forward through TV ads, but I had to go looking for info on purchasing e-cigs when I started back in February of this year.

Agreed... the main marketing to date, appears to me to be word-of-mouth...

I've seen some Blu TV ads... but nothing I'd call overwhelming... Budweiser, Ford, etc, have some overwhelming advertising... but I'd love to see a "how did you find out about eCigarettes" poll... I would bet the vast majority didn't learn about them from an overwhelming amount of traditional advertising.

 

[Bill Godshall]

Vocalek inquired:

Am I wrong about this? I perceive that the American Legacy Foundation stands to lose a lot of funding if smoking rates drop too far and/or too fast.

Although declines in nationwide cigarette consumption reduces cigarette company settlement payments to the states, I think all of the billions of dollars in payments to Legacy have ended.

Interestingly (and disturbingly) most of Legacy's settlement funding (especially after 2002) actually came from the Smokeless Tobacco Agreement (i.e. it came from UST), not from the Master Settlement Agreemnt with cigarette companies (although Legacy got a big chunk of money early on from the MSA).

Legacy knew that its funding gravy train was coming to an end about five years ago, prompting Legacy to invest lots of money in stocks and bonds (which is what Legacy is primarily living off of), and to hire CASA Columbia e-cig prohibitionist and former DHEW Secretary Joe Califano to organize a lobbying campaign urging Congress and State AGs to give Legacy even more money.

Mike Siegal and I exposed the campaign lies and hypocrisy by Califano/Legacy, including claims that Legacy was broke, that Legacy was responsible for the huge decline in youth smoking (which was due to indoor smoking bans, tax and MSA price hikes, and enforcement of laws banning cig sales to minors) and that Califano was just a concerned citizen voluntarily organizing a grassroots campaign to save Legacy's financial legacy. After our criticism, and with its tail between its legs, Legacy quietly ended its well financed phony grassroots campaign via Califano.

But Legacy still has hundreds of millions of dollars, and has been getting funding from drug companies in recent years.

 

[DC2]

When the general public thinks about nicotine the same way they think about caffeine, we will have won.
And that seems to me to be the only way we CAN win.

Until we cross that hurdle, we are nothing but drug addicts who will say and do anything for our fix.
Or at least that's what they will say whilst sipping their Grande Mochachino Lattes.

 

[Orb Skewer]

When the general public thinks about nicotine the same way they think about caffeine, we will have won.
And that seems to me to be the only way we CAN win.

Until we cross that hurdle, we are nothing but drug addicts who will say and do anything for our fix.
Or at least that's what they will say whilst sipping their Grande Mochachino Lattes.

Snipped from another thread-something I've had as a mantra for a long time now DC2

"* If only Han Li (Hon Liks) father had not died of cancer and had actualy been a coffee fiend-he might have invented and patented an Ego with a clearo and filled with VG/PG and caffeine-we would not all be in the sticky and complicated mess we are currently facing (hind-sight is a wonderfull thing)"